Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The papers of Margaret Mead, anthropologist, author, and educator, were bequeathed to the Library of Congress by Mead, 1979-1980. The South Pacific Ethnographic Archives was given to the Library by the Institute for Intercultural Studies in 1980. Additions to the collection were made in a series of gifts by Mead's daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson, 1981-1988, and by gifts and purchases from various donors, 1980-2023. A series of deposits from Bateson, 1992-1999, was converted to gift in 2000, and additional gifts were received from her, 2001-2005.
Processing History
The papers of Margaret Mead and the South Pacific Ethnographic Archives were arranged and described by Mary M. Wolfskill, with the assistance of Paul Colton, Patrick Doyle, Leonard Hawley, Paul Ledvina, Sherralyn McCoy, Michael McElderry, Susie Moody, Harold Nakao, Janice Ruth, Joseph Sullivan, Allan Teichroew, and Audrey Walker, in 1983. Additional material received between 1984 and 1992 was processed as Additions I and II in 1993. Material received between 1996 and 2001 was processed as Addition III in 2001. Addition IV was processed in 2009 and includes material received in 2005 and 2008. These additions were processed by Donna Ellis and Michael McElderry, with the assistance of Kathleen Kelly and Tammi Taylor. Addition VI was processed in 2024 by Katherine S. Madison and includes material received between 2014 and 2023.
Addition V constitutes digital surrogates of 31,604 original 35mm nitrate negatives from Margaret Mead's and Gregory Bateson's Bali and New Guinea expedition. Beginning in the 1980s and into the 1990s, the negatives were re-housed and a relational database (Paradox) to describe the images was compiled by Prints and Photographs Division staff. The film was removed from the original film cans and stored on two-inch plastic cores secured with archival microfilm reel tags. Descriptions of individual images or groups of images were compiled from various sources within the collection including, but not limited to, books and publications by Mead, Bateson, and others; Mead's and Bateson's Leica catalogs; their Cine catalog; a numbered card index; typed indexes to their field notes, etc. Most pf these sources can be found in the original Fieldwork (N) series and the original Photographic File (P) series. Library staff involved in processing these original negatives included: Katherine Blood, Donna Collins, Carl Fleischhauer, Barbara Lemmen, Pat Loughney, Doris Hamburg, Rebecca Molholt, Merilee Oliver, Mary Wolfskill, and Helena Zinkham, with outside assistance from Rhoda Métraux. The original negatives were digitized for preservation and access purposes circa 1997, and the database was eventually converted to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Manuscript Division staff who further processed the digital surrogates include Eleanor McConnell and Christopher Copetas, with assistance from Elizabeth Novara and Janice Ruth. The digital surrogates were transferred to the Manuscript Division to facilitate researcher access.
Transfers
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some maps have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. Motion picture films, sound recordings, and related material have been transferred to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. Some photographs, including four containers of negatives and diapositives taken by Jane Belo removed from the collection in 2004, have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Margaret Mead Papers and the South Pacific Ethnographic Archives. Patrons are encouraged to contact these divisions in advance of a research visit.
Circa 2009, the Prints and Photographs Division transferred 32,000 digital image surrogates of original 35mm nitrate negatives from Mead's and Bateson's Bali and New Guinea expedition to the Manuscript Division to facilitate researcher access. The original negatives remain in the Prints and Photographs Division in cold storage and are not accessible to researchers.
Related Material
Related collections in the Manuscript Division include the papers of Rhoda Métraux at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms008041.
Microfilm
A microfilm edition of part of these papers is available on one reel. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan. To promote preservation of the originals, researchers are required to consult the microfilm edition as available.
Online Content
Part of the Margaret Mead Papers and South Pacific Ethnographic Archives is available on the Library of Congress website at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000115 and onsite via Stacks at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms009117stacks.mss32441. To promote preservation of the originals, researchers are required to consult the online edition as available.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Margaret Mead Papers and the South Pacific Ethnographic Archives, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.